Yet hardships give us new perspectives. It’s when we suffer and fret that we learn (or relearn) how hard AND precious life is.

My first book was born at a similar time. Anger, fear, uncertainty and a hunger for new things drove me to write it. Once the first draft was finished I moved on to other things. I still believed in the story, but somehow I could not bring myself to finish the current re-write. A kind of mental inertia took over.

Then life kicked me in the gut and I came up with this:

Life gave Antony a swift kick in the gut and hurls him across the Atlantic. In the sleepy village of Woodstock he confronts his past (father), his present (brother) and his future (love life) while struggling to keep his family business alive. Now he finds himself somewhere that is Neither Here nor There.

Not the ideal back cover blurb that makes agents, publishers and readers swoon over a story but it says all that you need to know about the it in three sentences (minus word count).

Which means it still is alive.

Because I’m still alive.

Because when life kicks you in the gut you don’t curl up in a ball and take it. Oh no! You get up and run with it, pain and all.

I don’t know what tomorrow brings, but I know what I’m bringing with me to tomorrow and all the days after that.